YOUR FACE I SEEK

“One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in His Temple…Hear, O LORD, when I cry aloud; be gracious to me and answer me! You have said, ‘Seek my face.’ My heart says to you, ‘Your face, LORD, do I seek.’ Hide not your face from me…I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living! Wait for the LORD; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the LORD!” (Psalm 27:4, 7-9a, 13-14)

You likely relate to this very scenario: You wake up in the morning, perhaps you brew a cup of coffee or steep a cup of tea, and you grab your bible to spend some time with the Lord before the rest of your day begins. Maybe, like me, you daily sit in the same chair, following the same routine, completing your habitual devotions. And maybe, just like me, you have done this for years; it has become the normal habit of your life. You sit down, open your Bible, read a few chapters, perhaps journal a few thoughts down, and maybe even pray a little prayer. Then you close your Bible. But for just a brief moment, you stop, think, and reflect on what you have just read. Maybe it’s a fundamental, doctrinal truth. Perhaps it is a foundational, biblical promise. Regardless, you think and pray.

The problem you find yourself in, though, is that as you pray you can’t help but to feel the fight for faith, deep in your soul; the fight to believe that what the Scriptures say is true and that God can be trusted and believed. You intend, and commit, to be devoted to your devotions (whether it be morning or night, or any other time during the day). But, despite your best attempts, nagging on the fringes of your soul, or consuming you entirely at times, is the thought of whether or not God has really heard you, or for that matter even cares.

I know that you know the feeling. I know that you feel the tension. I know that you fight this battle; I fight it too. I find David’s words here to be a comfort to my heart, especially in times like these.

David begins this psalm, declaring to God his absolute devotion to Him. He says that the one thing he will “seek after” is “to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in His Temple”. In other words, David is writing that he is committed to the pursuit and worship of God, with everything he is. Many of us have made the same commitments. But then David runs into a felt problem.

David is genuinely seeking after God. He describes his prayer as “cry[ing] aloud”—calling for God to answer him. But the soul problem that David finds himself in is that though God has called him to seek Him, and though David has prayed, it still feels like God is silent and has hidden His face. David is crying out for God to answer, because it feels like God hasn’t—“Hide not your face from me…”

You know this feeling; so do I. So, what are we to do? David’s words in this psalm are helpful for us. From the verses above, there are at least four things we are to reflect on as we pray, especially when our prayers seem to go unanswered, and perhaps feel unheard:

1) Seriously Seek God

The one thing David committed Himself to wasn’t just a one-time prayer to the Lord; it was the commitment of his life—“all the days of my life”. Perhaps our prayers go unanswered because we try to treat God like a genie, instead of the Great God that He is. God is worthy of our continual worship.

2) Pray God’s Promises

When David prayed, he wasn’t asking God for anything that God hadn’t already promised—“You have said…” This wasn’t an arrogant command, it was a humble reminder; more to David, than it was to the Lord, though. Many times our prayers may seem to go unanswered, and we may feel discouraged, perhaps simply because we are praying for things God just hasn’t promised.

3) Boldly Believe that God is Good

David’s life wasn’t going the way he imagined it would; and he was struggling, to some extent. So, what does he do? He boldly declares, “I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the LORD.” His life made him feel like God wasn’t good, but He knew that God was good. So, he reminded himself of the truth that he knew to be true.

4) Willingly Wait for the LORD

David recognized that God did not owe him anything; after all, he refers to God as “LORD”—He is the One who rules over all, and to Whom all is owed. But he also knew that God had made a promise. And so, what was he to do when his life didn’t match the promise? He waited; he waited for God to act, for he knew that God would act, because God is faithful to all that He promises.

We too find ourselves in similar places and mindsets that David prayerfully describes here. We too are apt to feel the tension between what our lives look like and what God has promised. We too struggle to reconcile our faith with our lives when God feels silent. The tension is real because the fight for faith is a constant reality.

David’s life is a good example of what to continually do when we find ourselves here. We must commit ourselves to seriously seek the Lord, we must pray His promises, we must boldly believe that our God is truly good. And until those promises are fulfilled, we must be willing to wait for God’s timing, though it may be longer than we’d like to wait.

And on top of this promise, we have this promise from the Lord Jesus, Himself:

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!” (Matthew 7:7-11)

We don’t know exactly what David was dealing with, but we do get a glimpse of how he dealt with it. He trusted the promises of God, because He trusted the God who made the promises. May we live the same way.